Crossed Wires
by Broken Stone
Summary: When Ryan's work and family life collide, the results are unexpected and shocking.
1. Murder In Miami

**Murder in Miami**

Okay, this is my first fan fic. Hope people like it. Excuse the inconsistencies, I was writing this fuelled by caffeine and adrenaline for the past week at unreasonable hours of the morning! Also excuse typos and spelling mistakes!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from CSI: Miami though I really wish I did.

The weather was very unusual. It was raining. For once, the sky wasn't blue and blazing with a hot sun. It was grey, cloudy and pouring with rain. Drivers slithered past on wet roads, spraying irate pedestrians as they drove through puddles. People hurried through the streets with unfamiliar hoods tugged over their heads, and stood in the fronts of shops or the lobbies of buildings complaining about the weather. Not that the rain was doing much for the heat since it was still very warm.

The weather might be different from usual but some things always stay the same and one of those things is murder.

'You're late,' Calleigh said as Ryan approached.

He set down his kit. 'Sorry. Traffic was really bad on the way. The weather seems to have taken everyone by surprise.'

'You're lucky this is one dead found inside, then.,' she said. 'Owner of this nightclub. One of the cleaners found him earlier, called it in.'

'You're not staying then?' Ryan said, frowning.

She smiled. 'No. I got another call about five minutes ago. You're on your own on this one.'

'Great,' he muttered.

'You'll be fine,' she assured him. 'Just ask if you need any help. Alexx is out the back with the body. See you later.' She waved as she walked away.

'Hey there boy,' Alexx said without looking up from the dead body on the floor. 'How's that eye?'

'Better than it's been for a while,' Ryan said, grinning. 'How are you? Enjoy your vacation?'

'I came back wondering why I don't go more often,' she replied.

'Thanks for the postcard.'

'You're welcome, honey. Got presents for everyone too. Yours is back at the lab.' She smiled at him. 'You get it when you solve this case, how about that?'

'Sounds fun.' He looked down at the body, adjusting his camera. 'What do we have?'

She gave him a hard look. 'You're pulling a triple, Ryan. You're on overtime, aren't you? There something wrong?'

'No,' he said, averting his eyes in a manner which told her that he was lying. 'I just wanted something to do. Eric broken his ankle a while ago so he's confined to the lab and I'm taking over his field work. Mind you, he's still on crutches but almost healed so it won't be for much longer.'

'You sure that's all it is?'

'Of course I'm sure.' His face took on the hard expression it did when he didn't want to talk about something. Alexx gave him a piercing look and he had to look away. However, she didn't push the subject.

'Mr Moore here died of blunt force trauma to the head,' she informed him. 'Liver temp puts time of death at about three this morning. Several blows to the head with some cylindrical object. Last one cracked the skull, you might be able to pull some impressions off of it once I've got the skull ready for you.'

'Thanks.' He took a couple more photographs.

'Tell me what you see,' she said.

Ryan crouched down beside the body, eyes narrowed in concentration. 'Blunt force trauma to the head,' he said thoughtfully. 'High velocity blood spatter, more than one blow, spatter on the floor and the wall,' he pointed, 'and there is a massive void.' He took a couple of photos of it. 'Means someone was standing there, maybe our killer which means we should be able to get blood evidence off of their clothes.'

Alexx nodded. 'That's all obvious, Ryan. You see anything else?'

He took another look around. 'Table and chairs knocked over, broken glass and a broken bottle. Evidence of a struggle.' He examined the victim's hands. 'Defensive wounds, but some attack wounds as well. There was a fight.' He picked up a piece of glass. 'There's blood on this, and saliva on the other glass. We might be able to pull DNA off of them.'

'Good. See anything else?'

He squinted at the body. 'Fibres,' he said suddenly. 'All over the victim's shirt.' He removed several of the fibres and put them into an evidence bag. 'Red,' he observed. 'Maybe trace can pull something up on these. Could be nothing, though.' He got up. 'I'll take a look around and see you can at the lab. You good to go?'

She nodded. 'We should get this boy back to the morgue and see if I can find anything else out about him.'

'I'll see you back there,' Ryan said absently, too busy photographing to wave. Alexx shook her head with a wry smile.

He barely noticed Alexx leaving, he was too absorbed in examining the crime scene. The club was called Broken Glass, a relatively new and pretty popular club that had been under investigation for selling alcohol to underage teenagers and for selling illegal absinthe at private parties. He reflected for a moment on the irony. The owner, a Mr Max Moore, had been wealthy and not at all popular. Word had spread fast in Miami that he had influential friends and enemies and had seriously annoyed people who should never be annoyed. Now it looked as if one of them had finally taken care of him.

'This is the cleaner who found the body,' a police said to Ryan, bringing a man walking close behind him.

Ryan looked around. 'Hi,' he said. 'Can you tell me what happened?'

The cleaner nodded. He looked rather shaken. 'I came in at eight this morning,' he said. 'Like I usually do. I got the cleaning stuff out, like I usually do, and I came in here. Then I found him.'

'You came in here first?' Ryan said.

The man nodded. 'I always come in here first,' he explained. 'Mr Moore tends to come in early so I try to get his office cleaned before he gets in. Means I don't disturb him when I clean.'

'Right,' Ryan said slowly. 'Can you verify that?'

'How do you mean?' the cleaner said warily.

'I mean can you prove that you came in at eight?' Ryan said patiently. 'Not any earlier?'

The man shrugged. 'Well, you can take a look at the security camera. I always park my car around the back, so that'll tell you.'

'All right,' Ryan said. 'That'll do for now but we might need to talk to you again, okay?'

The cleaner nodded and left.

Ryan continued to process the scene. He wasn't aware of how much time had gone by until the police officer came back and said to him, 'There's two women who are wanting to come in. They say they're his wife and daughter.'

'All right, I'll come and speak to them,' Ryan said. He walked outside where there were two women stood outside, arguing with another police officer.

'Can I help you?' he asked politely.

The woman glared at him. 'And who are you?' she demanded angrily.

'CSI Wolfe,' he said. 'Can I help you?'

'We want to see my husband,' she snapped.

'I'm afraid you can't,' he said. 'I can't let you into this crime scene and your husband's body has already been transported to the mortuary.'

She drew herself up. 'Young man, do you have any idea who I am?'

'No,' Ryan said, trying to remain calm. 'And I'm afraid that I can't let you into the scene. But I do need you to answer some questions.'

'About what?'

'About your husband's murder.'

The glare she shot him was enough to make him drop dead. 'Why on earth would you want to ask me questions? Am I a suspect? How dare you?'

'It's standard procedure,' he said, gritting his teeth.

'I hardly think I would murder my own husband,' she hissed.

Ryan resisted commenting that the majority of murders were committed by someone the victim knew. Often spouses. He merely gave a hard smile and said, 'Can I ask where you were at about three this morning?'

'I don't have to answer that,' she said coldly.

'I'm afraid you do,' he said. 'Or else you _will_ become a suspect.'

She looked angry and then said, 'I was at home. Watching television, actually.'

'Can anyone verify that?' he asked.

'I can,' the daughter said. 'I came in at two this morning. Mom was still up.' She gave him a smile. 'So you see? I can _verify_ it.'

'And where were you until two?' he asked, ignoring the smile.

'At a nightclub,' she said. 'Strobe Lighting. You know it?'

'Yeah.' He nodded.

'Can you verify that?' she continued, obviously flirting now.

'I will be,' he replied, unsmiling.

She nodded, hands on her hips, smiling at him. 'You're cute,' she said. 'You wanna go out some time?'

'No,' Ryan said shortly. 'I'm the CSI investigating your father's death. Don't you think comments like that are inappropriate?'

She laughed. 'Oh, well. It was worth a try.' She winked. 'And I don't give up easily.'

'Come on,' Mrs Moore said tightly. 'We need to go.' She cast Ryan another furious look and swept away. Her daughter followed, shooting Ryan a flirtatious smile.

Ryan sighed and rubbed his eyes. He was seriously tired and knew that what he really needed was to go home, get some rest and come back tomorrow. But work was preferable to not doing anything. Besides, although he knew Horatio wouldn't object to him taking a day off, especially since he was pulling a triple shift, he didn't want to leave the other CSIs in the lurch by wandering off home.

His mobile rang. He took it out of his pocket, glanced at the caller ID and cancelled the call and shoved the phone back in his pocket.

He took another look around and bit back a sigh. It was going to take ages to finish processing this scene. Normally he would have enjoyed the challenge, but not today. He have another sigh and set to work grimly.


	2. What's Wrong With Wolfe?

**What's Wrong With Wolfe?**

'You took your time getting back here,' Alexx said when Ryan walked into the morgue.

'Sorry,' he said shortly. 'The scene took longer to process than I thought it would.' He looked at the body on the table. 'Can you tell me anything yet?'

'Only that our boy died of a head injury,' she said. 'I sent blood for tests, though.'

'Tell me something I don't know,' he muttered. He looked over to the bags on the table. 'These his clothes?'

'Sure they are.'

'I should take them up to the lab.'

'Okay, I'll let you know when I find anything.'

'Thanks, Alexx.' Ryan left the morgue, Alexx watching him, slightly worried. She glanced at the table and raised an eyebrow in surprise. He'd left two of the bags behind, something of an oversight for someone as organised as Ryan. She wondered what was worrying him.

Alexx wasn't the only person who had noticed that Ryan was acting strangely. Calleigh and Eric saw him coming up with the bags into the lab.

'You all right, man?' Eric asked him as they both entered the lab.

Ryan looked up, irritated. 'Yeah. Why?'

'Because there should be two more bags,' Calleigh said, pointing at the evidence bags. 'That's Mr Moore's effects, right? You're missing two bags. I saw them in the morgue earlier.'

Ryan frowned.

'And,' she continued, 'I borrowed your flashlight yesterday and the batteries are dead. And your kit isn't fully stocked.'

'So?' Ryan snapped.

'So you're obsessive compulsive,' Eric said helpfully. 'You never forget things like that, Wolfe. Never. What's eating you?'

'Nothing,' Ryan said, gritting his teeth as he set down the first evidence bag he was been about to open. 'I'm just tired, okay? Hopefully the Moore case is going to get solved quickly so I can go home and get some sleep – '

'Nice try,' Eric said, grinning. 'Come on, you're hacked off about something. Fess up, Ryan.'

He shook his head angrily. 'I don't want to talk about. It's nothing, anyway.'

'It's serious enough for you to be missing sterile gloves, swabs and no new batteries in your kit,' Calleigh said. 'You're worse than me over that.'

'It's hardly going to screw up my work, is it?' Ryan said, rather coolly. 'Now if you don't mind, I have to go and get the stuff I missed from Alexx.'

'No need,' Horatio's voice said from the door. He held out the two evidence bags. 'Alexx sent these up to you. You all right, Wolfe?'

For a moment Ryan looked like he was going to explode. Eric and Calleigh watched his face change expression several times with some interest, then he said calmly, 'No, Horatio. I'm fine, just a bit tired.'

'Okay,' Horatio said quietly. He exchanged a knowing glance with the other two first over Ryan's obvious lie and then the fact that the CSI hadn't noticed the first knowing glance. Eric bit back a smirk and exchanged a grin with Calleigh as they left Ryan to work on the evidence.

'How's the foot?' Calleigh asked Eric as they went down the corridor.

'Fine,' he said, using his crutches easily. 'Just means I'm stuck in here for a while.'

'You could have offered to help Ryan,' she said.

He laughed. 'Not in the mood he's in. I'll run away as fast as I can when he's that annoyed. Did you see him almost yell at H? I was almost hoping he would.'

'It would get to the bottom of what's wrong with him,' she agreed, tapping the button to the elevator. 'I wonder what's eating him? He's been in a bad mood for days and he never forgets stuff like that.'

Eric was about to reply when a woman pushed out of the elevator past them. She hesitated, looking a little intimidated by the size of the lab. 'Excuse me,' she said to them, 'can you help me?'

'Sure,' Calleigh said, smiling. 'How can we help?'

'I'm looking for Ryan Wolfe,' she said.

'Why?' Eric asked. 'He's busy.' He gave her a polite smile. She was pretty, small, and with dark hair and large green eyes.

'I'm his sister,' she said. 'I've been trying to get hold of him for days but he's never in and he won't answer his cell – '

'I'm afraid he's busy right now,' Calleigh said. 'Perhaps if you could wait – '

'No,' the woman said coolly. 'I can't wait. I've been waiting to speak to Ryan for over a week and I'm tired of it. So I want to speak to him now.' She gave them both an icy glare, as if the fact Ryan hadn't been taking her calls was their fault.

They looked at each other.

Eric gave her an evil grin. 'Sure. Come this way.'

'If any evidence gets ruined, it's your fault,' Calleigh muttered to him under her breath.

When they saw the expression on Ryan's face when he saw his visitor, they instantly regretted bringing her. His face fell and he didn't look at angry, just miserable.

'Sandy,' he said very quietly. 'What are you doing here?'

She set her hands on her hips. 'Is that all you have to say to me?'

He carefully set down the evidence bag. 'You don't have anything to say to me, then?'

Sandy stared at him. 'Like what, Ryan? Why the hell aren't you taking my calls? Why haven't you come home for several months? And why didn't you come to my engagement party? You're my brother, you should have been there.'

'I was working,' he said calmly.

'Working? You were too busy to come to my engagement party?' She laughed. 'Typical Ryan. So wrapped up in your precious work – '

'What have you been doing for the past few months?' he cut in sharply.

'Preparing for my wedding,' she snapped.

Ryan nodded slowly. 'So, you've been busy.'

'Very!'

'I call that even, don't you?' Ryan's voice dropped even lower, his eyes fixed on hers, his fingers tightening into fists on the table.

'For what?'

'For you not coming to visit me or even calling me after I got a nail in the eye.'

'Don't you dare throw that at me!' she shot back angrily. 'I was out of the country, you were fine! We were all on holiday, do you know how much Caribbean cruises cost for three weeks? On a luxury liner?'

Eric heard Calleigh stifle a gasp.

Ryan didn't answer for a moment. Then he said, 'This is why I wasn't answering your calls. You have your life, I have mine. I guess neither of us like to cross them over.'

'There is a dinner tomorrow,' she said. 'You're going to come. Be at Mom and Dad's house at seven. You're expected, a seat is reserved for you and for a guest.' She smirked at him. 'If you can find a date, that is.'

'I can't come,' Ryan said. 'I don't have a suit smart enough and I won't have a guest by then – '

'There's a surprise,' she said, smiling nastily at him. 'Never mind, you'll have an empty space to keep you company – '

'Just go,' Ryan said.

'You're going to come,' she said.

'Hey,' Eric said suddenly. 'Look, Ryan has to get on and process this evidence. You're in the way, so please leave.'

Sandy turned on him. 'I beg your pardon?'

'You heard,' Calleigh said quietly. 'Ryan is working a case and you're holding up an investigation into a possible homicide. Please leave now.'

'Before we ask security to remove you,' Eric added.

Ryan shot them both looks of gratitude as Sandy stalked out. 'Thanks, guys,' he said, looking relieved that she had finally gone. 'I didn't think she'd actually show up at my work place.'

'Your sister?' Eric said. 'You're not close, I take it.'

Ryan gave a short laugh. 'Close? We hate each other. Let's just say most of my family don't agree with my deciding to join the police force and then become a CSI.'

'Sounds heavy,' Eric said with some sympathy. 'You going to go to this dinner?'

Ryan groaned. 'I have to or else I'll have more irate relatives showing up here. That will not be good. Damn, I haven't got time- '

'You want to talk about it?' Calleigh asked gently.

Ryan didn't look up. 'You know,' he said, 'you're really lucky your dad approves of you, Calleigh.'

She frowned. 'You don't get on with your family?'

He straightened. 'I really need to back onto this work,' he said.

'You serious?' Alexx said. 'You think that's what's eating Ryan?'

Calleigh nodded. 'I don't think he gets on with his family. Has he ever mentioned them to you?'

Alexx considered. 'No,' she said eventually.

'And,' Eric added, 'he accused his sister of not even calling him after he took that eye injury. She said they were all on a cruise.'

'Sounds like none of his family bothered to come see him when he was off work with that injury,' Calleigh said.

Alexx looked angry. 'You're kidding.'

'Didn't sound like it was a joke,' Eric said. 'I had no idea Ryan didn't get on with his family. Apparently they don't agree with his choice of career.'

'I expect that's why he's been less than his usual focused self recently, either,' Calleigh said. 'He was probably expecting a visit like this some time soon.'

'He said something about his family not approving of him,' Eric said. 'He said Cal was really lucky her dad approves of her.'

'Nothing wrong with his career,' Alexx said. 'And he's good at the job.' She shook her head. 'Poor kid.'

'That's pretty rough,' Eric agreed. 'Think we need to give the guy some moral support.'

'Looks like he's gonna need it,' Calleigh agreed.

'Going to need what?' Horatio looked around the door with interest. 'Is there something I should know about?'

'Ryan seems to be having family trouble,' Eric said. 'His sister came here and had a go at him. He wasn't happy.'

Horatio nodded. 'Yes, Wolfe hasn't been his usual super-efficient self recently.'

'He knows not to let it affect his work,' Calleigh said.

'It already has,' Horatio said. 'Maybe I should talk to him.'

'I don't think that would be such a good idea,' Alexx said. 'Horatio, family matters have to stay family matters. I would have thought you would understand that.'

Horatio smiled. 'Point taken. Just keep an eye him, team.'

'Understood,' Eric said.

Horatio nodded and left.


	3. Back To The Beginning

**Back to the Beginning**

Note: In case anyone is wondering, I actually read about the thing with the table in a book of forensic cases. I thought it was kinda funny and I thought it was a pretty ingenious idea.

Valera walked into the evidence lab carrying trace results for Ryan when something flew at her head. She ducked and turned, seeing a mobile hit the opposite wall and explode followed by Ryan's voice swearing venomously. Several people walking past stopped and stared.

She poked her head around the door. 'Trace asked me to send this to you,' she said.

Ryan spun and glared at her. 'Thank you,' he said from between gritted teeth.

She blinked. 'Something wrong?' she asked, grinning.

'Oh yeah, everything's great,' he said sarcastically.

'Oh, so you just throw your phone at the wall for fun, do you?' She smiled. 'Lighten up, Ryan. What's wrong with you?'

'Family,' he spat, snatching the results from trace off of her. 'This the results from those fibres I found on the victim?'

She nodded.

He swore.

'Something wrong?'

'They're plain red cotton,' he said angrily. 'Nothing unusual there are all.' He crumpled the paper up and threw it on the floor.

She decided to leave him to it.

As she left, she bumped into Alexx. 'Don't go in there,' she advised the ME. 'Or you'll get shouted at.'

Alexx raised her eyebrows. 'Never seen Ryan this mad before,' she commented. 'Sounds like it's just a bit more than family problems, doesn't it?'

Valera shrugged. 'All I got out of him was some four lettered words and a phone thrown at my head.'

'What's with throwing things at your co-workers?' Alexx asked Ryan.

He looked up angrily. 'What?'

'What did you throw your cell at Maxine for?' she asked.

He relaxed. 'I'm sorry, Valera,' he said. 'I just got a call that really annoyed me.'

'I could tell,' Valera said. 'Try not to throw your phone, next time? It's not something people appreciate.'

'Yeah, yeah,' he muttered as she left.

Alexx watched Ryan for a moment. 'You want to talk about it, sweetie?' she asked.

He didn't look up. 'There's not much to say, really. And this is not the time or the place.'

'True. I'm here if you want to talk,' she said.

He smiled, tiredly. 'Thanks, Alexx.' He rubbed his eyes. 'I guess I'd better get back to work.'

Alexx peered at him. 'Ryan, when was the last time you slept?'

'Slept?'

'You must be familiar with the concept,' she said dryly.

He shrugged. 'I'm not sleeping too well at the moment,' he said. 'It'll pass.'

She nodded, not convinced but decided not to comment right then.

It was the next day, late in the shift.

'Any leads on that murder case yet?' Horatio asked.

Ryan had been hoping he wouldn't. 'Nothing,' he confessed. 'Or nothing that anyone is admitting. I can find people with motive, all with alibis. Nothing I can crack, either. There's no one that I can match the DNA we found to, nothing. I'm stuck, Horatio. I hate to admit it, but I'm stuck.'

'All right,' Horatio said in his usual calm manner. 'Think about this, Wolfe. Is there any evidence you've overlooked, anything you might have missed?'

'I don't think so.'

Horatio sat down. 'Take me through everything, Ryan. Just talk me through the case.'

Ryan closed his eyes, thinking intently. 'Victim is named Moore, a wealthy nightclub owner. It's a new nightclub, doing well. It's been under investigation but so far they're found nothing that they can prove. He has no major debts, no gambling problems, no drug problems, no divorce or maintenance to pay. There was money left on him, money at the scene where he was killed.'

'So the motive isn't robbery.'

'No. He was beaten to death, we still haven't found the murder weapon. A cylindrical object, Alexx says. I got some impressions off of the skull but can't match it to anything. He definitely died of head injuries. Both the wife and the daughter have alibis.'

'What about the security camera at the club?' Horatio asked.

'They show someone, probably male, going inside about an hour before the victim was killed. He was wearing a baseball cap, a scarf and a big coat. We couldn't get anything from that. He walked in, there wasn't a car. The owner had sent the security guard there home, the club was closed that night. No one seems to know why.'

'Evidence on the victim?'

'Red fibres, plain cotton. Probably from a shirt. They don't match anything the wife or daughter own.'

'What else?'

'There's broken glass, looks like a struggle. No useable fingerprints because they're cut glass. The DNA on them matches the victim and an unknown donor, which matches the DNA under the victim's fingernails. He fought his attacker.'

'What else?'

'There's the unknown DNA from blood on one of the glasses. The glass was already broken because the blood is on the jagged edge.'

'So the victim lashed out with a broken glass. Anything else?'

'There was a void in the blood spatter. The killer will have been sprayed with blood, if we can find them then we might get some trace off of their clothes.'

'Did you finger print the door handles?'

'We found a few fingerprints, from the security guard and the victim and the cleaner. The security and the cleaner are in the clear, and I think the killer must have worn gloves.'

'Right. So our problem is finding the most likely person to have murdered him.'

'Once we find a lead to our killer, we might have some luck. So far, everyone who had something against him is cleared. All have alibis that I've verified.'

'Right. So, where do you go from here?'

'Home,' Ryan muttered.

Horatio bit back a smile. 'Wolfe, where do you go from here?'

'Back to the beginning,' Ryan said slowly. 'I go back to the beginning.'

Horatio smiled. 'Back to the beginning.'

A couple of hours later and Ryan's optimism had faded with incredible rapidity. He had gone over the original crime scene again and again and so far had come up, once again, with nothing.

At least, until he went into the office again.

Instead of looking around for the millionth time, he stood beside the desk and took a long, long look around. He ignored the disturbance from the murder, the struggle that had occurred. Rather, he took a look around at what the office would have looked like when Moore was alive. Neat. Tidy. Ryan grinned despite himself. Almost obsessively tidy. Everything was carefully arranged, books and files arranged in either height or alphabetical order. Pictures on the walls hung straight, not a single one crooked. Everything had its rightful place. And everything was in its rightful place.

Or not.

The desk was slightly skewed. He crouched down, turning on his flashlight and examined the floor. There were indentations in the carpet where the table legs rested, but the desk wasn't set into them like it should have been. He pushed the table slightly and felt it shift. That was odd. It wasn't as heavy as he had expected. Either it was made of cheap wood that had been dolled up to look expensive, which was possible, or the owner had deliberately made sure it was easy to move, which was also possible.

Ryan sat back on his heels and considered. The skewed desk might not have meant much to anyone else, but it was bothering him. Mr Moore had clearly been a very neat, very tidy person who liked things to be exactly where he wanted them. Ryan could appreciate that, and he figured that he himself would not shift a desk over unless he specifically wanted it shifted. The fact that it might simply have been a result of the scuffle was most likely, but Ryan's intuition was knocking and he was going to listen to it. There was something about this that he had read in another case file. Something about a table.

He lay down flat on the floor and shone his flashlight over the foot of the desk leg, not entirely certain what he was looking for, only that he would know when he found it. There was nothing, so he moved to the second table leg and this time he saw something. There was a very small crack in the wood at the end of the leg. He tapped the leg with his torch and was rewarded with a vaguely hollow sound.

He grinned. That was it. He had read a case study about a CSI who had found incriminating evidence about a suspect hidden inside a cunningly hollowed out table leg. A plug had been fitted into the foot of the leg and papers had been rolled up and placed inside. The suspect had moved the table to hide the papers and had not put the table back exactly where he had found it and the CSI on the case had noticed.

It took a few minutes for Ryan to shift the table, find the plug and prise it out, after photographing everything, probably more times than he needed to. He was again rewarded with a rolled up cylinder of papers inside which he pulled out and photographed. He unrolled them and found that they were several pictures of Moore and a young woman in a series of – compromising – positions, and she was most definitely not his wife. The dates scrawled on the backs of the photos put them at having been taken recently.

Ryan smiled. The case was beginning to look more hopeful.

'You're accusing me of murdering my husband,' Mrs Moore said coldly.

'Oh, you haven't been accused of anything yet,' Ryan said. 'I'm just asking.'

'Asking me if I murdered my husband. The answer is the same as before. No.'

'Oh, I know you didn't kill him yourself,' Ryan said. 'The DNA at the scene – the DNA that isn't your husband's – is male. No female DNA. That doesn't mean you didn't have anything to do with it. Far from it.'

'Why would I do that?' she demanded. 'What makes you think I had any motive to kill my husband?' She gave him a furious glare.

'Because you found out he was cheating on you,' he said.

She stared at him, the colour draining from her face. 'He was what?' she whispered.

'Cheating on you.' Ryan considered her thoughtfully. 'Let me tell you a story,' he said conversationally. 'You find out your husband is having an affair. You're hurt and angry. Maybe divorce isn't an option – too long, too messy. But if he dies you get everything, right? All the money, the club, the house, the cars, everything. Sounds better than half, doesn't it? So, angry and hurt, you decide enough is enough. Maybe you hire a hit man. Yeah, that sounds likely.' He pushed a sheet of paper across the table to her. 'We managed to get a warrant for your financial details. Says you went shopping a week ago, bought yourself a heap of expensive jewellery. Eight thousand dollars worth, to be exact.' He watched her a moment. 'Which you then took back, in exchange for cash. That's a lot of money to spend on jewellery you take back two days later, isn't it? Unless the money wasn't for jewellery. It was for the hit, right?'

'I didn't even know he was cheating on me,' she said quietly.

'Then explain the money.'

'It was for my daughter. She's in college. She needed the money for equipment and books.'

Ryan laughed. 'That's a lot of money for just college things, isn't it?'

'She has expenses,' Mrs Moore said. 'I was helping her out. Her father wouldn't give her anymore money. You can check on that.'

'Oh, I will,' Ryan said grimly. He glanced up and saw Horatio outside. 'If you'll excuse me,' he said and went outside.

'You found something then, Wolfe,' Horatio said.

Ryan nodded. 'Some photographs. The wife is still denying murder, although we've found a motive now.'

Horatio nodded. 'Eric is doing some research in trying to find out who the woman in the photographs is.'

'She might have motive,' Ryan agreed. 'I need to check her story. She might be telling me the truth.'

'Good, you do that,' Horatio said. 'Get the woman he was having an affair with in.'

'I'll tell her she's free to go, but we might want to speak to her at a later point,' Ryan said.

'How did Ryan find those photographs?' Alexx asked.

Calleigh smiled. 'He found them in the table leg.'

Alexx stared at her. 'In the table leg? What possessed him to look inside the table leg?'

'He noticed the table was skewed,' Calleigh said.

'That could have been the scuffle.'

'He said that, but he also said he just wanted to check. And he found them.'

'Maybe OCD can be beneficial in a job like yours,' Alexx said.


	4. Family Reunion

Family Reunion

Eric made his way on his crutches past the locker room. He stopped and then backed up. He watched in confusion and some amusement.

Ryan was banging his head repetitively against his locker with a thumping noise. His eyes were closed.

'You all right?' Eric asked.

'No,' Ryan said.

'What's wrong?'

'My damn case.' He sighed unhappily. He banged his head against his locker again. 'It's not going well.'

'I thought you got a lead?'

'I did. It led nowhere.' He turned around and slumped and against the locker. 'Neither the wife nor the woman he was having an affair with can be proven. The wife didn't even know he was having an affair and the 'other woman' didn't even know he was dead. I checked out their alibis again and both are water tight. I'm back where I started and now – ' He groaned. 'And now I have to go to dinner with my family. When I would much rather be trying to crack this case.'

Eric smiled. 'Good luck.'

'Oh, I'm going to need it,' Ryan said grimly, dragging a neatly covered suit out of his locker. He had obviously brought it with him, anticipating that he would finish work late. It was a smart black suit and white shirt. He had even brought his shoes, cleaned and polished.

Eric grinned again. That was so typical Ryan.

'What's the problem between you and your family?' Eric asked, aware that he was treading on dangerous ground. 'I mean, if you want to talk about it – '

'I'm the let down,' Ryan said softly. 'I'm the one who didn't get a respectable, high-flying, highly paid job. I'm the one who isn't married to some high-earner, or who's seen at the right occasions with the right friends. I'm the one who went against my entire family's wishes to study chemistry and genetics instead of law. I'm the one who joined the police force when I should have been training to become a lawyer. I'm just a massive disappointment and everyone I am related to reminds me of that whenever I see them.'

He sounded bitter and resentful. Eric was reminded how supportive his parents had been, how delighted they had been when he had joined Miami police and finally the crime lab.

'I'm sorry,' he said.

Ryan gave him a weary smile. 'Thanks, Eric. Still wish I could stay and work, though.'

'Well, I'll do some more digging for you,' he offered. 'See if I can't come up with anything.'

'Thanks, Eric,' Ryan said gratefully.

'Don't mention it.'

Ryan felt vaguely smug as he sat in the uncomfortable chair in the expensive restaurant, not because he was enjoying himself at all but simply because he had been right. This was every bit as torturous as he had expected. He had stubbornly refused to ask anyone if they were free to come for moral support just to annoy his family who had booked a seat for someone to come with him. Unfortunately, his sister had foreseen this eventuality and now he was saddled with one of her fluffy friends who giggled and flirted with him outrageously. Sandy and her fiancé, Rob, sat directly opposite them so Ryan wasn't even able to ruminate on his current case to keep himself entertained because they kept interrupting him.

'So,' the girl, whose name was Candy, short as Cassandra, she had explained to Ryan's total incomprehension, asked 'what do you do, Ryan?' She rested her chin on her hand and fluttered her eyelashes at him.

'You're a police officer, aren't you?' Rob said, smiling. He was a PA to some famous person whose name he refused to mention, making Ryan suspect that the person wasn't really famous, just rich. Whatever he did, he earned double the amount Ryan did, at the very least. That only bothered Ryan because Rob was always throwing the fact that he earned more than Ryan in Ryan's face, not seeming to realise that Ryan really didn't care.

'I was,' Ryan said.

'Ooo!' Candy said, excitedly. 'Have you ever been shot at?'

'Yeah,' Ryan said, staring glumly at his glass of wine. 'It wasn't fun. I ended up in the ER with two inches of nail sticking out of my head.'

Candy stared at him in astonishment then decided that he was joking and giggled. 'That's a funny joke!'

'It wasn't a joke,' he said.

She stared again. 'What?'

He pointed to the scar beside his eye. 'No joke.'

She blinked, then dismissed the subject, looking slightly worried. 'So you're a cop?'

'No,' he said. 'I'm a criminalist.'

'A what?'

'I work for the crime lab now,' he said patiently. 'My job is solving crimes.'

'Oh. Is it interesting?'

'It's badly paid,' Rob put in. He smirked at Ryan. 'Right?'

'I don't really care about the pay,' Ryan shot back. 'It's job satisfaction and the knowledge that I'm doing something important.'

'What kind of things do you do?' Candy asked.

He didn't think she was really interested, but he was getting annoyed now. 'Lots of things,' he said. 'We all analyse trace, gather and process DNA, study tire treads, blood spatter analysis, ballistics, fingerprints, the list goes on. We try to work out how people died and if it's murder, who killed them.'

'Oh.'

'And we have to attend the occasional autopsy as well,' Ryan added maliciously.

They all stopped and stared at him.

'I had to go to one last week where the man had been in the water for five days,' he continued in tones of inappropriate cheerfulness. 'He was so bloated that we had to have a drainage bucket underneath him.' He paused and then added thoughtfully, 'We had to be really careful when he was pulled out of the river because the floaters have a tendency to explode.'

Sandra gave Ryan a furious glare as Candy and Rob both went slightly green. Rob looked down at his garlic mushrooms and set his fork down.

'Was it something I said?' Ryan asked innocently.

'What do you think?' Sandra said furiously.

'A lot of things,' Ryan said, draining his glass. He wondered if maybe he had had too much to drink. 'I think that I haven't had enough to drink yet and I'm also thinking that I wish I hadn't driven here so that I could drink more. And I'm also thinking that I have a case to solve and I could be spending my time at the lab working on that case.'

'I told you he has an attitude problem,' Sandra said to Rob in a stage whisper.

The waiter came and served them their main course. Ryan was grateful because it meant that he had an excuse to bite his tongue and not spit out an angry comment.

'You could have been a good lawyer,' Sandra continued. 'I don't know what possessed you to join the police force, Ryan, I really don't.'

Ryan ignored this.

'If you want a change of career, I might be able to get you a decent job,' Rob said to him, smirking.

'I have a decent job,' Ryan said coldly. 'In case you forgot.'

'No, I didn't,' Rob said.

Ryan gritted his teeth and took out his frustration on the meal he had ordered, chopping it up roughly with very little interest in actually eating it. He was only grateful that his parents were preoccupied chatting animatedly with Rob's parents and were paying no attention to him at all. The other people there were all also too busy talking to each other and having an apparently good time to notice how much he was hating this.

'Stop looking so miserable, Ryan,' Sandra said sharply. 'You're totally spoiling this for the rest of us.'

'You know,' Ryan said. 'I'm not feeling too well.'

'Then maybe you should leave,' Sandra said nastily.

Ryan got up so quickly his chair crashed to the floor. 'Sandra, that's the best advise you've ever given me. I think I'll take it.'

'What? Ryan!' she snapped.

'See you, Sandra,' he said angrily, grabbing his coat.

'Ryan!' his mother said sharply. 'Ryan, where are you going? Sit down and stop making a spectacle of yourself!'

'Have a lovely time,' he said expansively. 'Enjoy patronising each other, pretending you like each other and wasting each others time. Sandra, Rob, enjoying getting married. I won't be coming, I don't think I'll have invitation after this, but please believe that I am totally sincere when I say that you both completely, totally and utterly deserve each other. And Candy, you're very sweet, but please, please, please try and find your brain.' He waved, giving them all an angry grin and hurried away.

He walked out of the restaurant, furious. People were staring at him in astonishment and curiosity. He almost collided with a waiter who glared angrily at him. Ryan muttered a hasty apology and hurried out.

His car was parked outside. He got in and thumped the steering wheel angrily before starting the engine and driving home.

He drove faster than usual, still fuming. He reached home quickly and pulled in sharply to his parking space outside his apartment, leaving tire marks on the ground.

Ryan shut off the engine and lent his head against the steering wheel. His head was pounding. He shook it, trying to clear it. He sighed. He was tired and angry and really need sleep. Huh, sleep. Something he didn't seem to be getting much of recently. He sat up and tipped his head back against the head rest, rubbing his eyes distractedly.

He got out and went up into his apartment. He unlocked the door and threw his keys onto the table as usual.

After a shower, he tried to watch some TV, but there was nothing on. He tried to read, play a game, tidied up. He couldn't relax and he couldn't sleep. Sleep had been difficult over the past few weeks anyway, but he tried to sleep. He just tossed and turned for a couple of hours and eventually got up again.

The apartment felt stuffy and close. He glanced at the clock. Four in the morning. He couldn't believe the time had gone so fast. He got dressed and picked up his car keys. Maybe he could grab a few hours at work, maybe see if Eric had found some information and left it for him. Or maybe the graveyard shift might need some help. Anything to keep him occupied.

He walked quietly down the stairs and out to his car. He got in and shut the door, pulling his keys out of his pocket.

The next few seconds went by in a blur.

Someone opened the passenger door and leapt into the car. Ryan turned, opening his mouth to shout in anger. The intruder was wearing a pair of sunglasses and a baseball cap and he was holding a tire iron.

Ryan threw up his arms to protect his face but it was too late. The iron cracked across his skull. He cried out and the man hit him again. This time blood sprayed across the inside of the car and Ryan slumped, motionless.

The man dragged him from the driver seat into the passenger seat, slammed the door and got in the driver's side. He found the keys where they had fallen out of Ryan's hand, turned the engine on and drove Ryan's car away.


	5. Blood And Gunfire

Wow, thanks for the reviews! Glad people liked it. This is the next chapter, hope you all enjoy!

Blood and Gunfire

Ryan came round slowly. His head was pounding , the skin tight with dried blood. He blinked and shut his eyes quickly, trying to keep his breathing slow and even. Pretend he was still unconscious. The car was still moving, and quickly.

He listened. Intently. Sometimes the importance of hearing was underrated. The few weeks when he'd been terrified of losing his eyesight had made him appreciate his hearing a little more. Now he was depending upon his hearing to find out as much about what was happening as he could.

This was his car. The sound of the engine was familiar, he was certain it was his car. Eric, he thought with wry amusement, could probably tell what type of car it was by the sound of the engine but all he was sure of was that it was his. He wasn't tied up. His attacker had probably been in a rush, acting upon impulse. He clearly wasn't professional since so far he had been acting with stupidity in not tying Ryan up. He could hear the man's breathing, fast and shallow, the breathing of a frightened or angry man. The dim light in the car told him that it was early morning. Very early, but since it was summer the mornings got light very quickly. He tried to work out a rough time frame in his head. It had been about half past ten when he had stormed out of the restaurant, since they had spent ages on drinks and conversation before they even took their table. It took him about half an hour to drive home, and he'd been sat in the car for a while. Okay. That might take him up to about half eleven at the latest. A few hours trying to sleep, trying to find something to do to take his mind off how angry and miserable he had been.

Then he'd decided to go for a drive, go to work and find something to do there. Something useful. He'd left at fourish. Could be five or even six by now.

Then someone had hit him, knocked him out and taken him somewhere. In his car.

_Well_, he thought, _I guess I can rule out robbery._

He wondered exactly what would happen next. He opened his eyes very slightly and examined the car door, wondering if he could risk opening it and throwing himself out of the door. It was locked. He considered it for a moment more but something else changed him mind.

His gun was gone. He couldn't feel its weight against his hip anymore. He'd taken it with him, had it on him when he'd got in the car. That meant his attacker had it. He felt a moment of sick fear and tried to calm himself.

The car stopped.

Ryan didn't open his eyes.

The man reached over and took hold of his wrists. Ryan unfroze and lashed out with a fist, aiming to strike the other man and try and make a run for it. The man yelled and smacked him across the side of the head. Pain lanced through Ryan's head but he tried to ignore it, even though it blurred his vision and made his head spin crazily.

'Keep still!' the man snarled and brought the muzzle of the gun hard against Ryan's head. 'Keep still or I will shoot you!'

Ryan stopped struggling and glared into his attacker's face. He didn't recognise the man, had no idea who he was and what he might have done to him.

The man continued, 'You don't make a single move or else I will kill you. Understand?'

Ryan nodded. 'Who are you? What have I ever done to you?' he asked.

'Shut up,' the man said.

Ryan ignored that. 'Look. Let me go, okay? Just let me go and I'll forget I ever saw you, that any of this happened.' Lying through his teeth, but it was worth a shot.

'I told you to shut up.'

The man was so obviously not a professional, so obviously had no idea exactly what he was doing here that Ryan wondered what on earth had possessed him to do this. It was only the fact that the man held the gun expertly that kept him from trying to make a run for it. That and the fact that he was pretty certain that he might have concussion. He didn't feel like he could actually stand, let alone run.

'Get out of the car,' the man said.

Ryan got out.

'Hold your hands in the air.'

He lifted his hands above his head.

'Walk forwards.'

The man had got out of the car and was stood behind him, the muzzled of the gun resting between Ryan's shoulder blades. He walked forwards.

'You don't want to do this,' Ryan said quietly.

'Shut up.'

'You really don't. You can still go back now. Let me go and you'll be treated leniently.'

'Shut up.'

'I think you've got the wrong person.'

'I told you to shut up.'

Ryan took a quick look around. It was some kind of multi-storey car park, but apart from his car, it was deserted. Maybe still under construction, or about to be demolished. They were a few stories up, he realised, because he could see the tops of buildings through the gaps in the sides.

With a sinking feeling, he realised that he really had been brought up here to die. Somewhere out of the way, somewhere his body might not be found if this place was to be demolished. His instinct told him it was.

'Let me go and we can forget this,' he said again.

'You're police, kid. You won't forget.'

'I work for Horatio Caine,' Ryan said. 'You can bet he won't forget the murder of one of his officers. He tends to take that kind of thing personally.'

The man laughed grimly. 'Shut it. Stop.'

Ryan felt the pressure between his shoulders ease.

It was now or never.

He had absolutely no delusions about getting out of this alive. He had little chance of that now. But what he could do was make sure that, if he died and his body was found, then the team would be able to catch this son of a bitch.

He spun and struck out at the man. He punched him and brought his other hand up, so that his fingernails could be used. It wasn't a very masculine way of fighting, he thought with some grim amusement, but that wasn't really the point. The point was to get as much of the bastard's DNA on him as possible.

Ryan felt some satisfaction as his attack drew blood, and a fair bit of it. He punched the man again and grabbed his wrist, trying to wrestle the gun back.

The man snarled and punched Ryan in the face, hitting him directly in the mouth. Ryan actually felt his teeth puncture the man's skin and tasted blood.

The man backhanded him across the face, sending him crashing to the floor. He rolled, and landed on his back. He started to get up and a bullet took him in the shoulder.

The second took him in the stomach.

Ryan collapsed backwards onto the ground.

Through the ringing in his ears he heard the man sighed. He looked up and saw the man carefully wiping the gun clean with a handkerchief and throw it aside. The gun landed with a loud clatter beside Ryan.

Then the man walked away. Ryan heard the car start up and drive away.

He gasped, trying to breath normally. It hurt. Beyond anything else, even that damned nail, it hurt. He couldn't move without agony flaring through every part of his body.

Ryan lay there a moment. He was bleeding badly. He didn't know why that fact surprised him. He'd seen shooting victims before, had heard Alexx's comments upon the physical damage they caused, the rate of blood loss. But it was difficult to believe that this was now happening to him. At least with the nail injury he had been able to move, a little, even if that movement had consisted mainly of Eric dragging him at full speed.

He gasped, trying to breath. His chest felt – heavy, leaden. His shoulder and chest were infused with agony, so intense he could barely keep consciousness. He could smell the gun-smoke in the air, feel the hot balls of lead inside his body and the wet warmth of a blood pool spreading beneath him. He gasped again, coughed, blood spraying upwards. _Arterial,_ he thought numbly_. Bright red, coming up from the stomach. Couldn't have hit anything major. I'd be dead by now, but something inside's seriously damaged. I don't think I've got much time. _

He was amazed at how calmly his mind was working under the circumstances.

_I think without a doubt, this has to be the single most stressful moment of my life, _he thought dully.

Inside his head, he heard Alexx's voice. _'Died of exsanguination. Poor baby bled out. Didn't stand a chance.'_

_Not me,_ he thought angrily. _Not this time. And if this is how I have to go, they're going to catch this bastard…_

He had always made sure he carried his phone on him. Even more so since the nail incident. He could feel it in his pocket. Slowly, painfully, he reached into his pocket and managed to pull it out. He couldn't see properly. He tried to dial, but his fingers were now slippery with blood and he left bloody prints all over the phone.

He never had any idea how he managed to even dial, let alone dial a correct number.

But he did.

It rang. And rang.

Nobody answered.


	6. Very Little Time

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, glad you're all enjoying this! Here's the next chapter…enjoy! big grin

**Very Little Time**

'Where's Ryan?' Calleigh asked Eric.

He looked up. 'He's not in?'

'No.'

Eric shook his head. 'I haven't seen him.'

'He's late. He's never late.'

'I'm sorry, I haven't seen him. Maybe he got caught in traffic or he overslept.'

She gave him a hard look. 'You ever known Ryan to oversleep? You ever known Ryan to be late for anything?'

'No,' he admitted.

'It's really not like him at all,' she said. 'After the stressing he's been doing over this case – '

'Relax, Calleigh,' Eric said, giving her a reassuring grin. 'He'll come running in here in the next half hour saying sorry over and over again and freaking out because he's late for something for the first time in his life.'

'Maybe,' she said. 'I have some work to do in my lab. See you later.'

He waved a hand and knocked over one of his crutches. He made a grab for it and caught it.

'You still need those?' she said from the door.

Eric shrugged. 'The doctor said I should use them for walking distances. I can stand and walk across the room okay, just hurts a bit.'

'Ryan will be glad,' she commented. 'Another week and he won't have to be covering all your field work.'

'That'll make two of us,' Eric muttered.

A few minutes later there was a quiet tap at the door. It was Horatio. 'Morning Eric,' he said. 'You seen Wolfe this morning?'

'No,' Eric said. 'Calleigh was looking for him, but he hasn't turned up yet.'

'Maybe he went out to look at the scene again,' Horatio said thoughtfully.

'No, he hasn't clocked in yet,' Eric said.

'That's odd.'

'That's what Calleigh said,' Eric said.

'Do me a favour, Eric. Give him a ring, see what's happening. Wolfe's never late.'

'Sure.' Eric reached for his phone.

'Thanks, Eric.'

'If I don't get him I'll call his apartment,' Eric added.

'And if you can't get him on that, send an officer around.'

'I'll go myself, if you want,' he offered.

'No, on second thoughts, I will,' Horatio said. 'You'll come with me.'

Eric dialled. He got Ryan's voice message on his cell phone and left a message. 'Hey, Ryan, it's Eric. Just wondering if you're okay cos you're late for work. Hope to see you in later. Bye.' He ended the call. 'No answer from his mobile.'

'Right, try his apartment,' Horatio said.

Eric dialled the number. Again, he got the answer phone and left the same message.

'Right, let's go around there,' Horatio said.

The hummer pulled up outside Ryan's apartment building. Horatio got out. 'No car,' he observed.

'Tire treads on the ground,' Eric pointed to the ground.

'Driving in or driving out?' Horatio asked.

Eric narrowed his eyes and squinted at the tracks. 'Driving in, at speed,' he said eventually. 'Directionality shows that they're caused by driving in at speed. But see those – ' he pointed at another set, partially over the top of the first. 'Those imply driving out at speed. Burnt a lot of rubber.'

'Okay,' Horatio said thoughtfully. 'Let's assume for the moment that it was Wolfe who drove in and out. What would make him drive in or out this fast? Let's take a look around his apartment.'

They went up, a woman coming out letting them into the building when Horatio showed his badge.

'Have you seen Ryan Wolfe?' Horatio asked her.

She frowned. 'Youngish, dark hair? Police officer?'

He nodded.

'No, sorry,' she said. 'I saw him going out yesterday going to work, haven't seen him since.'

'Thank you, ma'm,' Horatio said and he and Eric went on up the stairs.

Ryan's apartment was locked so the caretaker let them in, again after seeing the badge. Inside, everything was neat and tidy, nothing out of place. No sign of any trouble, no fight, nothing. No sign of Ryan, either.

There were two messages on the answer-phone. One was the one that Eric had left. The other was from Ryan's mother, shouting at him down the phone about whatever it was he had done the night before that had obviously seriously upset her.

'Maybe he went around to talk, apologise?' Eric suggested.

'He would have called the lab to let us know he was going to be late,' Horatio said. 'But it's unlikely. He's more likely to have waited until he finished.'

'Well, there's nothing here,' Eric said. 'Let's get back to the lab, see if he's turned up.'

He hadn't, but Calleigh had news.

'Ryan's sister came in, shouting and wanting to speak to him,' she said. 'I told her he wasn't here so she started shouting at me.'

'She had no idea he's gone missing,' Horatio mused.

'So he's classified as missing,' Calleigh said quietly.

'Not yet,' Horatio said. 'Not yet.'

'Did you find anything at his apartment?' she asked.

'Nothing,' Eric said grimly. 'He's not there and his car wasn't there. No one's seen him. None of his neighbours, no one.'

'Great,' she said. 'So we have no idea where he is.'

Tripp came over. 'That might have just changed,' he said, looking concerned. 'We just got a call about an abandoned car, Wolfe's licence plate.'

'You've found his car,' Horatio repeated.

'Bad news is that it looks like there's blood inside,' Tripp added.

Horatio looked at Calleigh. 'Let's go.'

Ryan's car was parked haphazardly on the side of the road. There was blood on the driver's window and on the headrest of the seat. Calleigh examined it silently and pulled a swab out of her kit.

'What have you found?' Horatio asked.

Calleigh swabbed the blood and applied luminol. She watched the reaction and said, 'It's definitely blood.'

'How much?' he asked, hands on hips and eyes fixed on the ground.

Her voice was steady as she replied, 'Not much.'

He nodded silently. 'Right.'

'He might still be alive,' she said, lowering her voice.

'Might,' Horatio said, 'is good enough.'

'I'll get this back to the lab, verify that it's – ' her voice finally shook, 'what we think it is.'

He nodded slowly. 'Fine. You do that.'

'What are you going to do?' she asked.

'Honestly, Calleigh?' he murmured. 'I don't know.'

Eric looked up as Tripp came in. 'You got something for me?' he asked.

'Calleigh told me where Wolfe was at dinner with his family last night,' he said. 'I got a list of people there last night, and the security tapes are on their way over. Like you asked. What you thinking, Delko?'

'I'm thinking,' Eric said, 'that it's possible that someone from the restaurant might have had something to do with it.'

'How'd you figure that out?' Tripp asked.

'Call it a hunch,' Eric said, taking the list. 'Thanks, Tripp.'

'And I got this for you,' the detective added. 'Here. The security tapes for the outside of Wolfe's apartment building for last night.'

'Thanks.'

Eric left the list for a while and instead he played the security tape. There was little of any interest, until he watched Ryan's car driving in fast. Ryan got out and went in. A few minutes later another car pulled in and stayed there, the driver not getting out of the car which instantly caught Eric's interest. A few hours Ryan came out of the building and got in the car. At the moment he got into his car, the man in the other car got and walked over. Eric watched with growing horror as he zoomed in on Ryan's car and saw the man knock him out and drive the car away.

He wrote down the licence plate number of the man's car, and tried to get a clear image of the man's face but couldn't pull up anything useable.

Eric pulled the list over and examined it closely.

When the tapes from the restaurant arrived, he examined them. There was no car with the same licence plate as the other car. There was one car that he couldn't pull up any licence plate number up since it was hidden behind another car. He watched again and when Ryan left the place and drove away, a man walked out of the restaurant and walked down the street. It wasn't much, but it was a start.

Eric set about trying to find out who the man was. So far, this was his only lead, other than the licence plate. He got Tripp to pull up the car and try and find out who the car belonged to.

Finally, he had something to work with.

'I went through the list of people who were at this restaurant last night and compared it to the name we got on that car,' Eric explained. 'I didn't find a match, but I did find something very interesting.'

'What's that?' Horatio asked.

'I found a certain person who was there last night, with a man whose name matches the name on the car licence plate.'

Horatio smiled. 'Excellent. So we have a suspect.'

'Yeah,' Eric said. 'The car outside Ryan's apartment belongs to a Matt Tyler.'

'Matt Tyler,' Horatio said thoughtfully. 'Who was he with?'

'A certain widowed Mrs Moore,' Eric said.

Horatio raised an eyebrow. 'Things are beginning to add up, aren't they? Any luck in tracing Mr Tyler?'

'Tripp's on it,' Eric said. 'But we've still got to find Ryan.'

'Exactly.'

Calleigh came in. 'Any news?' she asked.

'We have a couple of leads,' Horatio said. 'You?'

'Tripp's not having any luck finding Matt Tyler,' she said. 'But he's working on it. Any news about the blood in the car?'

'None yet.' Horatio paused as Valera came in. 'I hope you have some news.'

She nodded, holding the sheet of paper in front of her. 'I ran a comparison of the blood you found in the car against DNA I got off of a water bottle in Ryan's locker.'

'Well?' Calleigh said.

Horatio's mobile rang. He ignored it.

'It's Ryan's blood,' Valera said quietly. She looked to be on the verge of tears. 'I checked it three times. There's no mistake.'

There was silence except for the ringing of Horatio's mobile.

'Are – are you going to answer that?' Calleigh asked quietly.

He shook his head. 'You and Eric are off of any other cases you might be working,' he said. 'This is the only case you're one. We don't have much time.'

'We need to find him quickly,' she said as his phone rang again.

He nodded and took out his phone. He was about to turn it off, then changed his mind and answered it.

'Horatio,' he said shortly.

There was silence on the other end.

'Hello?' he said sharply into the receiver. 'Who is this?'

He heard a faint gasp and cough. 'H-Horatio.'

'Wolfe?' he said sharply. 'Wolfe, is that you?'

Everyone in the lab turned and stared.

'That's Ryan?' Calleigh exclaimed.

'Wolfe, talk to me,' Horatio said. 'Where are you? Wolfe, keep talking to me, keep talking. Can you tell me where you are? Ryan, where are you? Do you know? Just keep talking – Ryan, keep talking!' He looked at Calleigh. 'Get on it,' he snapped. 'Get a trace on this number!'

She nodded and left.

'Wolfe,' Horatio said calmly. 'Keep talking to me. That's right, we're going to find you. Just keep talking to me. You have to stay awake Ryan, you understand that? Just talk, just stay awake. Ryan? Ryan! Talk to me!' He swore angrily and looked at Eric. 'Our time frame just got less,' he said.


	7. Please, Not Again

Here's the end of the cliffhanger for everyone who's been wanting to know what happens to poor Ryan! Enjoy! And thank you all for reviewing! It would have been up sooner but I was having some internet-related problems, and I'll post the last chapter up by the end of the week!

**Please, Not Again**

Horatio drove as fast as he dared, sirens blaring. Another police car and a rescue team were following him, although weren't quite able to keep up with his crazy driving.

'It's a disused car-park,' Eric said over Horatio's mobile phone. 'Scheduled for demolition. I guess the guy figured no one would find Ryan for a while if they just demolished the place.'

'We're almost there,' Horatio said, swerving madly to avoid another car and swerving again to take the next turning. 'Am I there yet?'

'Yeah, it's just around the corner from where you are.'

'Good. I'll talk to you later!' Horatio tossed his phone aside and stepped on the accelerator and his car screeched up into the first level of the car park. There was nothing there so he continued driving, looking out of the window for anything.

Then he saw something ahead. He braked the car with a squealing of tires, leaving burnt rubber across the floor. He threw the door open and slammed it.

Ryan was lying on the floor, covered in blood, eyes closed, not moving.

'Oh no,' Horatio said softly. 'Not again.' He raced over and crouched down. 'Wolfe? Can you hear me?' He checked the younger CSI's pulse and yelled, 'We need rescue here! Rescue, now!'

The rescue team had just arrived. Horatio moved out to make way for them.

'He's lost a lot of blood,' one said. 'Badly injured, still losing blood. Breathing's shallow.' He checked Wolfe's breathing and placed a ventilation mask and oxygen cylinder over his mouth and nose. 'Need to stop the bleeding. We've got to move him now.'

'I'll have dispatch teams assist with traffic,' Horatio said, going to his car to get his phone. 'Just get him to hospital, now!' He took a look around. There was a gun lying on the floor and a couple of casings. He got a couple of evidence bags out of the car and, pulling on a plastic glove, picked up the gun and examined it. 'Get someone down here to process this scene,' he said to one of the police officers who had pulled his car up. 'Not Calleigh or Eric. I'm going to need them.'

The officer nodded.

The rescue team got Ryan into the ambulance and drove away. Horatio went with them.

'What happened to him?' Alexx asked at the hospital.

'Where are the others?' Horatio asked.

'They're on their way,' she said. 'Horatio?'

'The doctors say the serious injuries were gunshot wounds,' Horatio replied. 'He went into cardiac arrest just after they got him here. They managed to resuscitate him but he's in a critical condition.' He fell silent.

'It's worse than that, isn't it?' Alexx said in a low voice.

'Fortunately for him, they missed all vital organs but he's lost a lot of blood. As soon as he's stabilised they'll take him into surgery.' He sighed. 'They're not confident that he'll survive.'

Alexx nodded. 'All right. We'll catch who did this, right?'

He nodded grimly. 'Oh, we'll catch them.'

'Horatio,' Alexx said gently, 'there was nothing you could have done. He's lucky you got there as quickly as you did.'

'What's happened?' Calleigh said as she, Eric and Valera entered the waiting room.

'He's holding on,' Horatio said slowly. 'I'm going to need one of you to process his clothing, if you can. And see if you can get any trace off of him before he goes into surgery.'

'You think we'll get something?' Eric said.

'Ryan's a criminalist, he'll have tried to get us some DNA to work with. It's worth trying.' He looked at Calleigh. 'And you some processing to do. I managed to bag the gun and bullet casings, and someone needs to process Ryan's clothes.'

'What about you?' she asked.

'I,' he said, 'am going to notify his family.'

Alexx looked at Valera with a faint smile. 'I guess it's you and me staying here, girl,' she said. 'If that's all right with you, Horatio.'

'I think Ryan would feel better if he knew you were here. But Valera, we need you back in the DNA lab if we're to catch the guys who did this.'

She nodded.

'I'll get onto it,' Eric said.

'Me, too,' Calleigh said.

There was a commotion further down the hall and then the entire team was approached at great speed by a man and two women. The younger woman was Ryan's sister Sandra.

'You're Caine?' the older woman demanded.

Horatio regarded her silently for a moment. 'I am,' he said eventually. 'Who are you?'

'I am Isabelle Wolfe, this is my husband and daughter. What is going on here?' she snapped.

'You don't know?' he said.

'I got a telephone call telling me something has happened to my son! Do you know what's going on?'

'Ryan has been injured in the line of duty,' Horatio said carefully.

'What is that supposed to mean? Last we saw of him was him having a childish tantrum and storming out of an exclusive restaurant! What exactly has happened to him? Is it worth dragging me and my husband out of very important meetings at work for?'

Everyone's jaws dropped in astonishment.

Horatio regarded her with growing dislike which showed in his icy tone. 'Your son has been shot and is currently in a critical condition,' he said with his less than usual tack. 'Doctors aren't sure he's going to survive surgery. Is that worth being called out of a couple of business meetings for?'

The Wolfes stared at him in mounting shock.

'Ryan's been shot?' Sandra said softly.

'After he left last night,' Horatio said. 'We found him just in time.'

'I want to see him,' Isabelle said.

Horatio looked silently at Isabelle Wolfe and then said very quietly, 'I don't recall your son wanting to see you before he was shot, Mrs Wolfe.'

'Of course he would wants to see us,' she snapped. 'We're family! Now go away.'

'Maybe,' Horatio said, 'you should have thought more about that last time he was in hospital.'

'Don't you dare talk to my wife like that,' Mr Wolfe said coldly, glaring at Horatio.

Horatio regarded him with silent contempt for a moment and then said, 'I think Ryan would prefer to know that people who actually care about him are here.'

'You don't care about my son,' Isabelle said. 'You care about an officer, one of your little team who run around to do your bidding.'

'I care about all my officers,' H said, still calm. 'They do a good job and a tough one. I appreciate their efforts and their skills. Maybe it's about time you did.'

'What's that supposed to mean?' she snapped.

'Perhaps it's time you appreciated your son's choice of career and exactly how good he is at that career,' Calleigh put in.

Even Eric agreed. Despite the history of hostility between him and Ryan, he had never doubted that the other CSI was excellent at his job.

'Maybe it's time you just appreciated him at all,' Alexx put in.

'How dare you tell us how to treat our own child,' Mr Wolfe said coldly.

'I have children,' Alexx said angrily. 'And I would be ashamed if I treated my children the way you're treating your son. Understand? How can you stand there and talk like that about your child?'

'You can't stop us seeing him,' Sandra said.

'No,' Horatio agreed. 'No, I can't.'

He let the family pass silently by.

'You let them?' Alexx said. She sounded annoyed.

'I can't stop them,' he said. 'I doubt they'll stay, Alexx. They'll have business meetings to go to and people to see. But they're his family. We can't stop them, even if we want to.' He looked around. 'Don't forget, we have work to do if we're going to catch this guy. Get to it, team.'

As it turned out, Horatio wasn't quite right. Ryan's family showed every intention of staying until Horatio pointed out, rather more gently than he had previously spoken to them, that his team had a job to do to catch the man who'd attacked Ryan. They had subsided, the sight of their close-to-death son having taken a lot of the anger out of all of them. They had disappeared to talk to doctors and discuss medical bills. Neither Eric nor Alexx had been very impressed but Horatio thought that it was their way of coping. He seemed to feel rather sorry for Ryan's family, seeing that they weren't close to him and found it difficult to express emotion.

Eric sealed the evidence collection bags he had used and put away the rest of his kit. 'We're going to find the guy who did this to you, Wolfe,' he said. 'We got a name, and hopefully you'll have got us enough DNA to nail him.' He glanced down at the evidence bags. 'You better pull through,' he added. 'We can't be doing with having yet another new team member. We just got used to having you hanging around,' he said with a weak laugh.

Ryan didn't respond. Eric hadn't expected him to. He just lay there, with the soft hum and beep of machines filling the room. Eyes closed, face deathly white except for a vivid purple bruise on the side of his head.

Eric sighed. 'I gotta go,' he said eventually. 'Got to get this stuff back to the lab. Alexx is here, Calleigh's processing the bullet casings and I got to go and get the bullets they got out of you. We'll all come and see you when we can. Valera'll be over when she's finished her shift, she said. Just between us, Wolfe, I think she likes you. One more reason to keep breathing, huh?' He laughed again. 'And Horatio's been trying to keep your family at bay, you might be interested to know. I'll have to tell you about that, it's kinda funny. Or it will be when you're recovered. No one sends people packing like H.'

He paused at the doorway. 'Don't die on us, Wolfe. Bet you never thought you'd hear me saying this, but we'd all miss you.'

Alexx looked up as Eric came out. 'Well?' she said.

He managed a grin. 'Criminalist to the core,' he said. 'Plenty of skin and blood under his nails, blood on his clothes. I reckon the guy who put him in here's going to have great big marks on his face. H was right – Ryan did his best to make damn sure if he died we'd get the guy.'

'Good,' Alexx said. 'You're going back to the lab, then.'

'Yeah. One of the police officers is going to run me back.' He gestured with one crutch. 'Be glad when I'm finally allowed to get rid of these things for good. You going to stay here?'

She nodded. 'I'll keep everyone updated.'

'You going to be okay?'

She touched his arm. 'Eric, I'll be fine. I brought some paperwork along and I'll keep him company until he wakes up. If anything happens, you'll all know.'

'Thanks, Alexx,' he said and then he left.

'Got anything on those bullets yet, Calleigh?' Horatio asked.

'I fired some test rounds from the gun we found,' Calleigh said. 'You know it's Ryan's, right?'

He nodded.

'I compared them to the bullets Ryan's doctors gave us after surgery.'

'Standard procedure.'

'I thought originally that Ryan had got off a couple of shots,' she said. 'But the bullets I tested were a match to the bullets in Ryan.'

'He was shot with his own gun.'

'Weapon of opportunity,' she said. 'Killer might have been acting on impulse, more than likely from what we know about him, and he panicked. Followed Ryan, knocked him out, took his gun. Shot him with it. It's wiped clean, too. No useable prints.'

'Then this case just got harder. We might not be able to match our shooter with this weapon.'

'We're relying on the DNA Eric got off of Ryan,' she said.

Horatio nodded. 'Let's hope it's enough to nail him, with the evidence we got out of Ryan's car.'

'I think we'll have a pretty good case if we can find the guy,' Calleigh agreed.

'Tripp is still working on that,' he said. 'I think our Mr Tyler has gone into hiding, though. We might have some trouble finding him.'


	8. It's Never Too Late

Here is the final chapter; a little earlier than I anticipated but hey, that's good. To all those who reviewed, I can only say wow! Thanks! big grin

**It's Never Too Late**

'Turns out you may have overestimated this one, Horatio,' Calleigh said, watching a group of police officers escorting an angry looking man into an interview room.

'Where did they pick him up?' he asked, waving an envelope in a distracted manner.

She smiled faintly. 'At the airport. He was trying to leave the state, heading for Argentina.'

'Really?' Horatio also smiled. 'Think he was expecting us?'

'We found out something interesting,' she added.

'Do tell.'

'Mrs Moore left earlier today, also for Argentina. Sounds like she was expecting a police visit, too.'

'I think I need to have a word with Mr Tyler,' Horatio said.

'Go for it,' she replied.

Matt Tyler looked furious when Horatio entered the room. 'Who the hell do you people think you are?' he demanded loudly. 'What the hell do you think you're doing? Why am I here? I've done nothing wrong!'

'I would be inclined to disagree with you on that,' Horatio said, sitting down.

'How dare you! I'll sue you for this, Caine! I have done nothing wrong!' Tyler raged, waving a finger at Horatio.

'Recalling shooting any CSIs lately?' Horatio inquired politely.

Tyler stared at him. 'What? What are you talking about?'

'One of my officers was shot early this morning, Mr Tyler.'

'Not by me.'

'You're quite sure about that?' Horatio's voice was still level and calm.

'Yes, I'm sure! I was supposed to be going on holiday and your people just came in and dragged me out – the damage this will have done to my reputation – '

'You have more to worry about than your reputation, Tyler,' Horatio said coldly.

'I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm sorry one of your officers was hurt but you shouldn't be putting them in the firing line.'

'As I recall, the officer in question wasn't _put in the firing line_,' Horatio murmured, giving Tyler a frosty stare, 'you went looking for him.'

'You're talking crap, with all due respect.'

Horatio actually smiled. 'Let me see your hands.'

Tyler stared then held out his hands for inspection. Horatio nodded. 'What happened?'

'Got bitten by a dog,' Tyler said without hesitation.

'Really? You know, those marks aren't deep enough for a dog. You know what we call that? Fight bite.' He smiled. The marks on Tyler's hand were red, swollen, infected. 'The human mouth is loaded with bacteria. Hit someone in the mouth, you end up with all that bacteria in your wounds. Takes time to heal. But you're not going to admit to anything right now, so why don't I tell you a little story.'

Tyler gave him an arrogant smile. 'Go ahead. I've got plenty time now you made me miss my flight.'

'You were having an affair with Mrs Moore.'

'What?' Tyler laughed. 'I've never even met the woman.'

'Yet you were dining with her.' Horatio opened the envelope and pulled out a photograph. It was of a young couple, smiling at the camera, and in the background showed a very clear image of Tyler and Mrs Moore, arms around each other.

'Looks like you do know her, and rather well,' Horatio said. 'Plenty of people at this place saw you together. You've just been caught out, Tyler. Sure you don't want to come clean?'

'So, I know her. What of it? It's none of your business.'

'It is when you made it my business. But let me continue my story. You were having an affair with her. You conspired with her to kill her husband. We thought she had maybe hired a hit man, but she didn't need to, did she? Not when she had you. You were willing to kill her husband, weren't you?'

'You're crazy. Why would we do that? She could just get a divorce.'

'Too long, too messy, too painful and she'd get everything if he died. You would both get everything. So you killed him.'

'You can't prove any of this.'

'Sure I can,' Horatio answered quite calmly. 'You killed him, with the tire-iron you later used to beat the CSI investigating the case into unconsciousness. We matched the CSI's blood and Mr Moore's blood on the weapon. And we found fingerprints.'

'And?'

'And you gave us some trouble. You're not in the database, we couldn't find you anywhere. No trace on the fingerprints or DNA we found at the scene of Mr Moore's murder. We matched them to the ones we found at the scene where the CSI was shot and in his car. And we didn't find the murder weapon before because you still had it. No one else knew about your affair, did they? So we had nothing to link you and Mrs Moore. You were lucky.'

'I didn't kill him, why would I attack a CSI?' Tyler said angrily. He was getting agitated.

Horatio watched him for a minute, then said, 'You thought you were safe. We questioned Mrs Moore twice, her friends and family. We didn't find about you, so you thought you were safe. You went out to dinner together.'

'That's a crime now?'

'No, but murder is. Things seemed to be going well, didn't they? Until she spotted the CSI investigating her husband's murder in the same place you and her were dining. She thought he'd seen you together. She got scared, thought the game was up. You panicked, decided you'd make sure he couldn't tell anyone.'

'Look, this is crazy.' Tyler's voice was edged with desperation.

'You keep saying that, yet in light of the evidence, it makes perfect sense. You see, you left when you saw him leaving. Followed his car home, waited for him to come out. When he did, you attacked him, knocked him out and drove the car some place else. You thought that by doing that, he might not be found until you had managed to get out of the country.

'This is a really good story,' Tyler said sarcastically. 'Not very believable, though.'

'Oh, it gets better. You and Mrs Moore had decided that you were going to leave together, go somewhere until the fuss over her husband's death had died down. Not exactly a sensible thing to do, but understandable. You booked separate flights so as not to be connected to each other. She's on her flight now, but she'll be coming straight back to Miami to be charged and stand trial.'

'Whatever. Keep telling yourself that, Caine. Might make it come true.'

'It doesn't have to, Tyler. Don't worry, I've almost finished. You shot him, left him to die, and dumped the car. But you were panicking, never kidnapped before, you made mistakes. You left the tire-iron in the car where we found it. You left your fingerprints all over the car. You remembered to wipe the gun down.' Horatio fixed him with an icy glare. 'That's low, you know. Shooting a police officer with his own gun. But you left it there, gave us a match to the murder weapon. True, you wiped it down and removed all fingerprints, but it was there.'

'I don't even know how to shoot.'

'You know, I really don't believe you. Anyway.' Horatio gestured towards Tyler's face. 'Where did you get that scratch?'

'I own cats. They tend to scratch.'

Horatio smiled. 'You got that when the CSI fought back.'

Tyler scowled.

'You see, Tyler, CSIs are trained to catch criminals. That's what we do, it's what we know. He knew that if he got your DNA on him, we might be able to get something that would point directly to you. Blood, skin cells, all contain DNA. And he got plenty of useable DNA for us, blood and skin under his nails and on his clothes.'

'You can't match any of that to me.'

'We can, Tyler. We already have.' Horatio gave him a satisfied smile.

Tyler's eyes narrowed. 'You can't. I never gave my consent – you need a warrant - '

'When we confiscated your belongings when you were arrested, we had already secured a warrant for your DNA and fingerprints for when we brought you in. We got DNA and prints off of your belongings. We'll be wanting samples directly from you to check against and for trial, but you, my friend, are nailed.'

Tyler shook his head stubbornly. 'No.'

'Yes, Tyler.'

Tyler stared at him. Trying to explain, as if that would have made any difference. 'I love her. We wanted to be together.'

Horatio lent forwards. 'Divorce is painful, but ultimately, you would have both been free. One of my officers would not be fighting for his life and another man would not be dead.'

'I'll walk,' Tyler said angrily. 'I'm wealthy, influential. So is she. We'll never serve a single day.'

'We'll see about that,' Horatio said. 'You are going to jail on one count of murder and one of abduction and attempted murder. She is going to jail on two counts of conspiracy to murder. No matter how wealthy or influential you both are. And that is what we call _closure_.'

Tyler stared at hi, helpless and furious.

'By the way,' Horatio said, pausing by the door. 'There's something you know. The CSI you tried to kill? He hadn't seen you and Mrs Moore. If he had, he would have reported it straight to me and you would have ended up here sooner rather than later. He was only there with family for dinner. He never even saw you.'

'I guess I made a mistake, then,' Tyler said softly.

'Oh, you made more than one mistake,' Horatio told him. 'Your first mistake was committing murder. Your last mistake was to harm one of my team and in Miami, that's something _we don't forget_.'

'Heard you caught the guy,' Alexx said, looking up as Horatio entered the room.

He nodded, smiled. 'How is he?'

'Still not regained consciousness,' she said and then said to Ryan, 'You heard that, sweetie? They got him, they got guy who put you here.' She stroked his forehead. 'If news like that doesn't wake a criminalist up, nothing will.'

'Give him time, Alexx,' Horatio said with, sitting down. 'Give him time.'

'Thank God it's finally over,' she said. 'And that's he's alive.'

'Yes,' Horatio said with a weary sigh. 'You know, Alexx, I don't think this team could survive another fatality. Not losing another one of us in the line of duty – '

'They all know the risk,' Alexx said gently. 'All of them. They know they risk their lives for in this job, and they believe that risk is worth it. You can't blame yourself if something happens to any of your team, Horatio, because they are all totally aware that they're in the firing line.'

'But I put them there,' he said.

She reached over and touched his hand. 'You don't put them there, Horatio. You're not the one who shoots at them, who tries to kill them. Don't you dare blame yourself. You're not the one who fired the gun – not this time and not this time.'

He smiled. 'Thanks, Alexx.'

'Like I said, it all over,' she said, looking over at Ryan. 'Or will be,' she joked, 'when a certain person decides to wake up.'

'Yeah, wake up Ryan,' Eric said, entering the room, closely followed by Calleigh and Valera. 'We want to go for a drink and celebrate you not dying and we can't cart you there unconscious, can we?'

Horatio smiled. 'I'm sure he won't mind us celebrating without him.'

'We'll go out when he's recovered,' Calleigh said, carting with her the biggest bunch of flowers Horatio had ever seen. When he commented on this, Calleigh said, 'We got everyone to contribute. Valera ordered them.'

'Looks like you ordered an entire florist,' Alexx said, sounding impressed. 'Looks you might have put every florist in Miami out of stock for the day.'

Valera looked slightly embarrassed. 'I said we wanted something nice for a colleague who was in hospital, for the amount we got from everyone at the lab,' she said. 'They made up this.'

'It's great,' Eric said, grinning. 'Ryan's going to think this is hilarious.'

'Don't tease,' Calleigh told him in a low voice. He grinned even more at that.

'Where's the family?' Valera asked.

'Resting,' Alexx said. 'They've been taking it in turns but they're all exhausted. I said you would all probably be visiting, but they decided not stay since Horatio had words with them.'

'That's something, I guess,' Calleigh said. 'Or it might be a case of too late.'

'That's for him to decide,' Horatio said. 'You all want to hear about how we got the guy who did this?'

'Oh, a bed time story, the crime lab way,' Calleigh joked.

Horatio sat back, smiling. 'We got him,' he said, allowing himself to sound a little smug. 'We always get our man in the end, team.'

'No, we don't,' Eric pointed out. 'What?' he said as everyone looked at him. 'It's true!'

'Not this time,' Horatio said. 'Not this time.'

Some days later… 

Horatio went to the hospital, having heard that Ryan was being allowed to go home. Eric and Calleigh had offered to go, but a case had come up so Horatio had gone instead.

He found Ryan in his room, in a wheelchair, waiting to go. He looked pleased to see Horatio, although he looked tired and very drained.

'How are you feeling?' Horatio asked him.

'Like I was recovering from being shot,' Ryan said dryly. 'Other than that, great.' He cleared his throat. 'Thank you for – for finding me.'

'I'm just glad you were still able to call for help,' Horatio said. 'You're lucky to be alive.'

'I know,' Ryan said. 'I tell you, that's twice having my phone has saved my life. From now on, it's my constant companion,' he added, joking. 'And thank you for catching him. I mean, thanks to everyone for catching him. Can you tell them that?'

'You can tell them yourself,' Horatio said, smiling. 'They want to know when you're going to be fit enough for us all to go out for dinner.'

'To celebrate not losing another person?' Ryan said, his smile faltering.

'For not losing you,' Horatio said bluntly. 'For not losing a member of the team. You might have felt like a replacement, Ryan, but you're a valuable member of the team. No one wanted to lose another team member, another friend.'

Ryan's smile returned. 'Thanks, Horatio.'

'Don't mention it,' Horatio said. 'Do you need a life home?'

'No,' he said. 'My sister is coming to pick me up. She just took my things out to her car.'

'You can take as much time as you need off,' Horatio told him. 'You've been through a couple of ordeals the past few months. You might need some time out of the job.'

'I don't think so,' Ryan said. 'I'll take some time off, but I'd rather get back to work sooner rather than later.'

'That's fine,' Horatio said, although he wasn't sure it was. 'Ryan, do me a favour.'

'What?'

'Whether or not you decide to come back sooner or later, see the counsellor. Not because I doubt your abilities to cope, but because you've been through a lot. You might find it helps.'

Ryan looked at him for a while and then nodded. 'It's a good idea. I'll think about it.'

'Please do.' He looked around. 'I see the flowers are gone. Did you like them? Eric thought you'd think they were funny, for some reason.'

'I was very impressed,' Ryan said, laughing. 'We actually split them up and gave them to the doctors and nurses who were treating me. They were kind of pleased, I think. Did you see the card I got sent?'

Horatio nodded. 'I think Eric chose it.'

'I guessed as much,' Ryan said and grinned. 'He wrote, 'we tried to get you a sorry you got shot, hope you don't die card but apparently there isn't much of a demand for them. Hey, maybe we could market that idea.' Tell him I thought it was funny.'

'I will.' Horatio looked out of the room window and saw Ryan's sister outside, waiting. She was obviously waiting for them to finish talking.

Ryan saw her too. 'They're all trying,' he said. 'I've seen more of them in the past couple of weeks than I have in the past couple of years, I think. I guess everyone's making an effort.'

'Almost losing someone can something change people,' Horatio said.

'Things didn't change much last time I was in hospital,' he replied. 'I don't know, everyone's trying, I should be grateful for that. But maybe it's too late.'

Horatio looked at him. 'If you're all willing to try, it doesn't have to be too late.'

'You really believe that?' Ryan asked. 'That's it's not too late?' He didn't ask if Horatio thought it was too late for him and his family, but Horatio knew it.

'All you can do is try,' Horatio said. 'Sometimes, just sometimes, it's not too late.' He went to the door. 'Take care of yourself, Ryan. Come back to work when you need to.'

'Thank you, Horatio,' Ryan called.

Horatio nodded and smiled and walked slowly out of the hospital. He stood outside, thinking. He hoped he was right.

His phone rang. He answered it. 'Horatio.' He listened. 'All right, I'm on my way.' He switched the phone off, put it in his pocket and smiled.

'Business as usual,' he said aloud. 'Back to work.'

It was sunny. Blue skies, no clouds in sight. The weather was normal, hot and bright and with relentless. Same as most days in Miami. Same as always. And some things change. And some things never change and one of those things is murder.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed; I was really worried no one was going to like it! You might be pleased to hear that I've just finished a short sequel in which lots more nasty stuff happens to Ryan. Again. I belong to the school of 'write about characters. Have nasty stuff happen to them,' in case anyone hadn't guessed. I should be putting it up in the next couple of days.


End file.
